MusicTech Rewinder - Issue #20

May 08, 2020

ENJOY READING AND HAVE A FANTASTIC WEEKEND!

Cheers,

Matt

Hal Leonard is still making sheet music and beating the digital band.

Popular video-sharing social networking service TikTok has reached two billion downloads worldwide amid the lockdown enforced to contain coronavirus in many parts of the globe.

COVID-19 has undoubtedly impacted the music industry, but what will the "new normal" look like for musicians once the pandemic is in the past? Musicians must choose their path: will they embrace the change and grow their career, or will they be impacted and ultimately further from achieving success?

America’s original gig workers are suddenly out of a job. Banding together as part of a broader labor movement may be the only move musicians have left.

Wave, the leader in interactive virtual entertainment experiences, today announces “One Wave,” a series of virtual concerts with John Legend, Galantis, among others, slated to roll out throughout the summer.

According to a number of job ads, Sony Music has very recently advertised for positions ranging from gameplay engineers to technical animators and lighting artists.

“AI-enabled” label, SNAFU Records, has launched with $2.9mln in capital with headquarters in LA as well as in Stockholm. The firm claims to be “the first full-service record label built on AI-music discovery.” Since its founding in March 2018, it has signed 16 artists, including Mishcatt – a jazz artist of Costa Rican descent who performed during the Avicii Tribute show.

This article evaluates the contribution to contemporary music and digital sound design of the German-American composer and inventor Rolf Gehlhaar (1943–2019). It sets in context his creative output, commencing with a biographical overview of his education in the USA, early career as a member of Stockhausen’s circle in Cologne, and subsequent work as a composer informed by an increasing humanitarian commitment to the development of technological resources designed to widen participation in musical creation and performance.

Independent labels and artists grew dramatically faster than the Majors and Merlin labels on Spotify in 2019.

Why SoundCloud’s most important competitor is not Spotify, but Instagram.

Livestreaming has a discovery problem. There's so much noise and activity, and little infrastructure to help audiences sift through it. As a result, ticketing and event-discovery apps including Bandsintown, Dice, Songkick and Eventbrite have all pivoted to livestreaming in a matter of weeks.